MONTREAL — As nearly two weeks of planned strikes and protests against Quebec’s proposed austerity measures kicked off, the demonstration in Montreal was declared illegal Monday, almost as soon as it started.
About 150 students gathered in Phillips Square just before noon and then started to march through downtown streets.
College and university students are protesting Quebec’s cuts to social services and are also calling for a moratorium on fossil fuel development in the province.
READ MORE: McGill University faculty members call for divestment from fossil fuels
Monday’s protest came after thousands of students gathered in downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon.
READ MORE: Montreal students protest austerity
As demo organizers did not provide a route for the march, police declared Monday’s protest illegal just after noon.
Riot police were at the scene in order to disperse the protesters and the demo was declared officially over just after 2 p.m.
Protesters have accused police of kettling students in Chinatown.
READ MORE: Fact file: What is kettling?
Montreal police confirmed that a “manoeuvre” using tear gas took place at René Lévesque Boulevard and St. Urbain Street in order to contain and disperse protesters.
“At some point protesters charged police officers that were trying to block streets for them” and protesters entered a building on René Lévesque, said police.
According to police, two police officers suffered minor injures. Two protesters were arrested for assaulting police officers and 24 people received tickets for not respecting orders from police.
As many as 25 Quebec student associations have voted in favour of holding strike days over the coming weeks, including the CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal, Concordia University, Laval University, Université de Montréal, UQAM and Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.
Rather than hold classes in those faculties that voted in favour of strike action, Concordia University has opted to have a day of “dialogue and reflection” on the first official day of student strikes.
Watch: Jamie Orchard sits down with Chris Mota of Concordia University
“As you may already know, students in several associations at Concordia, and elsewhere in the province, have voted or will soon be voting in favour of holding strike days over the coming weeks,” noted Benoit-Antoine Bacon, the university’s provost and vice-president of academic affairs in a statement.
“This is a challenging time for Quebec society as a whole and we respect that members of our community will be voicing their opinions in a number of ways.”
WATCH: Raw video from Montreal’s anti-austerity protest on Monday
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